Energy saving spotlights

topyam

Hi,

Plan to replace all the spotlights in our house with energy saving ones - can anyone point me in the right direction of where I can get good quality ones at a good price?

Regards
topyam

zeupater

Hi

What's the mix of bulb types you currently have installed ? ...

Z

topyam

They're just cheap spotlights from tesco I think - 50 watt halogen

rogerblack

At the moment, the quality and performance of cheaper LED lights isn't good.

Yes, you can get cheap LED lights, but they won't put out much light, or may have significant reliability issues, or be very odd colours.

In short - light output is measured in lumens.
A 50W halogen may put out 650 lumens.

This needs around 6W of good LEDs (or 15W of bad ones) to produce.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18X-CREE-GU10-Dimmable-9W-ULTRA-BRIGHT-LED-Spotlight-Light-Bulbs-Halogen-60W-70W-/250962367377?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item3a6e85d391
would be an example of a sort-of-comparable light, at 8 quid each for 500lm.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10X-GU10-WARM-WHITE-60-SMD-LED-SPOT-LIGHT-BULB-LAMP-/220847294808?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item336b864958 and similar

May well significantly disappoint.

MattLFC

The main offices where I'm supposed to be based, is gradually replacing all its halogen spotlights with LED units, as part of its green strategy. And they work just as effectively tbh, pretty much all the main lights in the building are spotlights, so as you can imagine it is saving them a massive amount of money.

Iirc, they have 4 big LED's and not about 15 little ones like you see on the bay. Will see if I can intercept one someday when I'm in the office, and get the wattage and manufacturer.

I assume they're probably decent ones, and their performance was probably tested before we rolled them out.

topyam

That would be great thanks. We have quite a lot of spotlights - I reckon they're q expensive to run.

grahamc2003

Replacing spots is Ok imv. I replaced some of my 50w gu10 with 4W power leds (those with just 3 leds, not 20 or 40, which are useless imv). Cost £4 each off ebay, I've posted a link to the ones I bought if you want to search) They are very bright, but the beam angle is very shallow, so fine if you really use them as spots, but not so good if you use them to light a room (where you need a wide beam angle. With two of them, they just about light a bedroom just enough to stop complaints, but not really like the even lighting 2 50w halogens give. So £4 buys you a great replacement in certain circumstances, but a poor replacement in others, imv.

bjohnson

I tried replacing reading lights above a bedhead with LEDS (I had been using 50W halogens) and I found that 4W LEDs were far too dim, even at such a short distance. In the end I used 9W LEDs from B&Q. I can't remeber the make but they were quite expensive.
To use LEDs to illuminate a room I reckon that you at least 9W per LED and even then check out the angle of coverage depending on whether you want a spot effect or an even spread of light.

Jennifer_Jane

Don't know if this is helpful, but I use Philips Eco 35watt dimmable GU10. They light up instantly and fit perfectly into the light-fitting (as opposed to some energy-saving lightbulbs which are slow to light up and stick out of the fitting). They are supposedly 30% energy saving (35w to get 50w). I think I can only get them locally from Homebase. Supposedly 2000 hours worth or 2 years.

Philips No 10461 or 3222 628 41082 (unsure what those numbers are).

But I'm pleased with them and I like a very bright bathroom for make-up etc (would have surgical standard lights there if I could!).

As for other spotlights - am still waiting for energy-saving bayonet R63 spotlights. Will have to change light-fitting eventually, if they don't plan to bring out bayonet energy-saving ones.

thenudeone

an idea: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=44339424&postcount=31

grahamc2003

bjohnson wrote: »

I tried replacing reading lights above a bedhead with LEDS (I had been using 50W halogens) and I found that 4W LEDs were far too dim, even at such a short distance. In the end I used 9W LEDs from B&Q. I can't remeber the make but they were quite expensive.
To use LEDs to illuminate a room I reckon that you at least 9W per LED and even then check out the angle of coverage depending on whether you want a spot effect or an even spread of light.

But within leds, there are several different technologies, which have VERY different light output and quality for the same power (e.g. 4W, 9W etc). You can find some excellent 4W power leds, true replacements for 50W halogen, for about £25, and pretty useless leds producing little light but using 9W.

In my experience, power leds (those taking 1 or 1.25W for each actual led, with 3 or 4 or 5 built into one lamp) are ok at £4 and very good at £25, whereas the 'old style' leds (where 20-60 are assembled into one lamp) are unusable (they were adapted from non-visible spectrum leds used for tv remotes) whatever you pay for them. For lower light levels, the latest SMDs are good, and I recently replaced a 20w reading lamp mr11 with a 1w SMD and the light is pretty much the same.

(also the light is instant from leds, and compatible led lamps have exactly the same fittings as the bulbs they replace).